One of the main misconceptions about eating vegan is that it’s expensive, which can be true if you don’t know how to shop correctly, use ingredients wisely and stock your vegan pantry like a champ. Like most misconceptions about veganism, the it’s too expensive assumption has very little to do with veganism itself and almost everything to do with a lack of understanding about proper planning.

Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking, by Annie and Dan Shannon, authors of Betty Goes Vegan and the bloggers behind Meet the Shannons, tackles this misperception head on. MTAOVC shows you how to set up a vegan kitchen properly, organize your pantry to maximize your dollar, how to shop wisely and what produce to buy according to seasons—and why that’s important. It then offers more than 200 recipes that incorporate these tips with creativity, ease and approachability.

Making and following recipes always involves leftover ingredients that can either go bad or be forgotten, but MTAOVC cleverly tells you how to use them up by calling out other recipes within the pages of book that use them. For example, I made these Simple Korean Kimchi BBQ Burgers from the book (more on that in a minute) and MTAOVC not only tells me how much they cost per serving ($2.68), but also tells me that I can use that bottle of sesame oil that the recipe calls for to make their Sesame and Soy Marinated Mushroom Steaks and Sesame Peanut Butter Noodles (as well as what page they are on). This makes for easy, efficient and cost-effective meal planning to help you plan your grocery list for the week.

And … these burgers! Made with either Lightlife’s Gimme Lean Beef or Match Meat Ground Beef (both vegan), they’re full of salty, sweet and spicy ingredients, like molasses, ginger, sriracha, kimchi, soy sauce and applesauce. These can easily be made beforehand and brown up nicely in a cast iron pan and taste phenomenal. Kimchi gives it a little crunch and a nice spicy kick, while the BBQ sauce gives it a lovely tomato-kissed flavor that’s rounded out well with a hit of liquid smoke, applesauce and agave nectar.

Want this burger? Make it yourself! The publisher, Grand Central Publishing, has generously allowed me to share the recipe here as well as offer a free gorgeous hardcover copy of Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking to one lucky reader through this post!

To enter, just leave in the comments section below your favorite money-saving, food-related tip. I’ll randomly choose a winner on Friday, June 26. Shipping is limited to US/Canada … good luck!

Congrats to Kathy, winner of this giveaway … thanks to everyone who entered!

Years ago, I had a vegan Korean BBQ burrito in Los Angeles. The burrito had jackfruit to replace the steak, and I still think about it when I’m figuring out what to have for lunch. Jackfruit is pretty pricey and hard to come by in Brooklyn, but whenever I get nostalgic for that burrito, I make these spectacular burgers. They combine the signature sweet Korean BBQ sauce with a “beefy” veggie burger and spicy kimchi (a sort of hot Korean sauerkraut usually made with napa cabbage, radishes, and green onions) to create a dinner just as good as those burritos. Plus, you’ll hopefully have some leftover kimchi as a side for lunch the next day.

Ingredients

Burger

2 cups Lightlife Gimme Lean Burger or Match Vegan Meats Burger

1 green onion, diced

1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses

½ teaspoon ginger paste

1 tablespoon soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

Dash of vegan liquid smoke

½ teaspoon onion powder

1 clove garlic, minced

BBQ Sauce

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

2 tablespoons soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

Dash of vegan liquid smoke

1 tablespoon Sriracha or Thai chili sauce

¼ cup applesauce

2 teaspoons agave nectar

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

¼ teaspoon ginger paste

1 clove garlic, minced

To Assemble

Instructions

Make the burger:

In a large bowl, use your hands to mix together the vegan beef, green onion, molasses, ginger paste, soy sauce, vegan liquid smoke, onion powder, and garlic until blended. The molasses is really sticky, so this is kind of messy and weird, but it’s totally worth it. Promise. Form the mixture into 4 patties about the size of your hand. Place them on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the BBQ sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together all the BBQ sauce ingredients. Set aside.

In a cast-iron skillet or frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil over medium heat. Working in batches, fry the burgers until lightly crispy around the edges, then reduce the heat to low and brush the burgers with BBQ sauce. Flip and coat the burgers a few times to get a nice saucy patty, but watch out for the hot oil. Repeat with the remaining burgers, adding the remaining oil after the first batch.

Reader Interactions

Comments

My best money saving tip is to try making things myself from scratch. Buying pre-made/pre-packaged items may be more convenient, but that convenience comes with a cost. By making things myself, I know exactly what's going into the item, and in most cases it is much more cost effective.

Wow, that burger looks amazing! And this is such a good idea for a book. I love that they direct you where to find other recipes utilizing the same ingredients. Very helpful!

My money saving tip is to use the bulk bins. They are great for getting just the amount you need; plus, you are sure to be getting fresher ingredients. I especially love them for spices. It's a lot less expensive to just keep refilling the jars I already have, as opposed to buying new jars again and again. That makes a full jar of organic cumin less than a dollar as opposed to $5-6. Often, my spices come up around 30 cents!

I find it more expensive but i no longer eat out…so I save money there. I am more of a nutritarian based on Dr. Fuhrman's book Eat to Live so some of these ingredients would need to be swapped out. But good base recipe. Thank you

It may sound counter-intuitive, but buying an executive membership from Costco has saved us plenty! They have so many vegan friendly items (organic frozen fruits and veggies, tofu, non-dairy milks, whole grains). Because we earn back a small percentage of what we spend, paid in a check once a year, our membership literally pays for itself.

Pay attention to seasonal fruits and veggies. I live in Alaska and sometimes it's hard to tell what is truly in season since everything has to be imported but if you pay attention you can save a lot of money that way!

i eat bean all the time, use frozen veggies when appropriate, and shop at aldi way too much. and before i started the insanity of nursing school, i grew a ton of veggies in a small garden, focusing on the ones that cost the most or are hardest to get (gorgeous heirloom tomatoes instead of carrots or cabbage). thanks for the giveaway!!

Meal planning is the thing that saves me the most money. If I have the week's meals planned out in advance and the shopping done, I find that there is no food waste at the end of the week. Everything in the fridge (fresh) has been used. Before I planned meals I was wasting a LOT of food. Thanks for the chance to win this book.

My money saving tip is to make my own mock ground meat with TVP and seasonings. It's way cheaper and since I control everything I can make it taste how I want. I also try to buy produce in bulk and freeze a lot of it to keep it usable. That way I know if there's added sugar or what not in it.

I never buy hummus it's so simple to make at home with either died/canned chick peas. For variation I will add chipotle pepper in adobo or sun dried tomato…or what ever I have on hand – served with veggies/crackers or used as a spread on sandwiches/bread

The burgers look great (though I'm not sure if those ingredients are gluten free so I don't know if I could make this for my family). That said, I do not consider $2.68 frugal AT ALL. I have 5 kids and we live on a very limited income, and I can't imagine making up vegan burgers that cost over $20 just for the burger part (assuming hubby eats two and everybody else has one, which is pretty standard for my hubby and would leave the teenagers still grumpy), not even counting the cost of the side dishes yet. I regularly cook up really good vegan meals for way less than half of that for the whole meal with multiple dishes.

As for my best money saving tip, I have lots. Join food co-ops like Bountiful Baskets for fresh, affordable organic produce (they deliver all over the country, even small towns), cook from scratch, eat seasonally, use lots of beans and rice and other inexpensive ingredients, get to know your neighborhood scratch and dent stores (we have a Mennonite one near us that regularly stocks organic, gluten free and vegan goodies that are a fraction of the price), grow a garden, learn to forage for wild edibles in your area from elderberries to morels to wild asparagus and more, look into local CSA's, learn to use every part of your produce (make stock from organic scraps and peels or use your beet greens in stir fries and green smoothies, for instance), and so on. Here are some of my best ideas for eating well on very little. https://www.pinterest.com/magicandmayhem/the-frugal-good-life/

Bulk buy anything and everything you can!! I get everything I can from my local health stores' bulk sections, or order cases of produce (during the winter) and buy direct from the farmer(during the summer)!! Making friends with them at farm markets is easy and has a great payoff in the end

When I buy tomato paste, I only ever use 20% of the product. I now measure out the remaining paste into Tbl portions and wrap in plastic wrap, then store in the freezer. Next time I need tomato paste, I just grab one wrapped Tbl from the freezer. It melts very quickly into the sauce I am making. Kathleen Campbell

My money saving tip is pretty much make stock at home. I save all the scraps from peeling carrots, tops and bottoms from celery, onion skins, etc and put it in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Then when I get enough I toss it in a pot and fill with water and boil. This saves lots of money on stock since many vegan recipes will call for a cup here, or a cup there. Then if I don't use it fast enough, I measure a cup, freeze it, and pop it into another plastic baggie.

I definitely buy in bulk whenever I can, and I watch for sales to stock up on items I use regularly. I am also that cheapskate who uses her calculator at the store to determine which brand or package size offers the best value – cost per ounce and whatnot 😉 michellecrisp25@yahoo.com